Live Aid 40th Anniversary Celebration To Include Musical Cast Album, Behind-the-Scenes BBC Doc and Highlight Broadcast

Sir Bob Geldof and the team behind Live Aid will celebrate the legendary charity concert’s 40th anniversary this summer with a series of events including a re-broadcast of highlights from the all-star 1985 shows and a new behind-the-scenes BBC documentary.

First up will be the release of the original cast album for Just For One Day — The Live Aid Musical on July 11, according to NME. The news was announced on Friday morning (May 2) by Geldof and fellow Band Aid Charitable Trust trustees Midge Ure of Ultravox, as well as Harvey Goldsmith and John Kennedy.

“We couldn’t possibly have known that 40 years down the track, the issue would be as vital or the interest as great,” Geldof said about the announcement of the musical and cast album. “Millions of children today are being forced to starve as an instrument of war, and millions of lives are in peril due to AIDS and because of cuts to international aid.” The original Live Aid shows were seen by nearly two billion people around the world and raised more than $125 million for Ethiopian famine relief.

The musical will hit London’s West End on May 15 following a sold-out run at the Old Vic Theatre. Just For One Day – The Live Aid Musical (Original Cast Recording) will feature songs from the artists who made history at the dual A-list charity shows held on July 13, 1985 in London and Philadelphia, including Queen, David Bowie, U2, Elton John, Madonna, Bob Dylan, The Who, Geldof’s Boomtown Rats, The Police and many more.

There will also be a special 40th anniversary performance of Just For One Day at the Shaftesbury Theatre on July 13, followed by an afterparty with performances from special guests.

BBC Two, CNN and the BBC iPlayer will celebrate the anniversary with the new three-part behind-the-scenes documentary Live Aid at 40, with exclusive interviews with Geldof, U2’s Bono and Sting that will look at the concert’s impact on music, politics and global awareness about famine between the 1985 original and the 2005 Live 8 reboot, according to Variety; it will air in four parts on CNN as Live Aid: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took on the World.

In addition, BBC Two will air Live Aid the Concert, a 6.5 hour highlight reel of the two shows with backstage footage and interviews with Bono, Queen guitarist Brian May, David Bowie, Elvis Costello and many more.

Check out a promo video for the musical below.